Let us be clear: The billionaire pharmaceutical companies that created such drugs as Oxycontin knowingly victimized Americans. They knew what they were doing when they shipped millions of pills to struggling communities across America. We must do everything we can to hold them accountable while grappling with the continued effects of the opioid epidemic. In the legislature, I brought a bill to increase access to treatment options for opioid users, and I will do the same in DC by:

• Fighting for an immediate end to the X-waiver requirement, so that all healthcare providers can administer lifesaving treatment to opioid users without needless, bureaucratic red tape

• Working to give the National Institutes of Health tools and flexibility to support innovative medical research to combat the opioid crisis

• Never kowtowing to Big Pharma, as our leaders have done for decades. The era of billion-dollar drugs targeting American communities is over.